Author: Root

With inputs from Ajay Prakash (AIR 9, CSE 2010) and Shuchita Kishore (AIR 39, CSE 2010) who chose English Literature as an optional, here is a strategy for the subject.

Novels and Drama:

For English-origin novels and drama, either ‘Worldview edition’ or ‘Norton Critical edition’ is recommended. One should supplement the analysis/criticism provided in these books with content available on websites such as Sparknotes , Cliffnotes, Wikipedia etc.

Text of a novel should be read at least once. Do not try to understand the meaning of each and every sentence; instead see a chapter in its entirety and in relation to the overall plot.

Critical essays and analysis of a work should be read thoroughly and important points memorized, especially vital themes, symbols and motifs.

For Indian-origin novels (where Worldview and Norton are not available), one should read the text well and search the net for essays, criticisms and analysis.

Poetry:

Dig the internet to gather as much in-depth knowledge about a poem as possible. Memorizing important lines of a poem is a good idea as its usage in an answer gives a very good impression. You can sail through by using your own analysis during reading of a poem.

History of English Literature:

(Covers important literary periods like Renaissance, Elizabethan era etc. refer syllabus)

Many good books are available for this:

• Introduction to English Literature by W.H Hudson
• The Routledge History of Literature in English
• A short History of English Literature (Pramod K. Nayar)
• Wikipedia is also a good source.

Unseen Poetry and Prose:

In paper-I, one has to answer questions based on unseen poem and in paper-II, there is similarly a passage from which questions are based. Both combined constitute 100 marks (50 each) and are compulsory.

These can be answered by using one’s common sense without any intensive prior preparation. A book Practical Criticism (Oxford University Press) can be useful in this regard.

A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H Abrams is useful for familiarizing oneself with various literary terms.

General Tips:

1. If one is fairly interested in literature, one can go for this optional very safely notwithstanding his/her graduation stream.
2. Coverage of complete syllabus should be a priority. Questions asked, especially in the recent years are so based as to test this aspect.
3. 3 months is sufficient for a person having background in English to complete the syllabus.
4. For one with a different background, around 6 months is sufficient depending on one’s familiarity with the texts.
5. Read the historical portion after completion of the literary works. In most novels, the plot and characters depict clearly the traits of a particular literary period. That way, one would get a fair idea of various periods without any extra effort.
6. Use simple language while answering questions. Deliberate and unnecessary use of complex lexicon won’t fetch any extra marks. It is a test of one’s knowledge of ‘literature’ and not ‘English’.
7. Answer-writing practice is of utmost importance. One should do it on a regular basis using the previous year questions (questions from past 10 year paper are relevant).
8. Since professional guidance (as per UPSC requirement) for this optional is virtually non-existent, one can approach any good university professor for evaluation of one’s answers. If not, even self-evaluation is sufficient.
9. Do not refer books which are often used by university students for securing a mere passing grade in exams (one such example is Ramji Lall). Their use, if necessitated, should only be restricted to summary of the plot/play. They cannot serve as a basic book for one’s preparation in CS exams.

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We are going to start with our Flagship Prelims TS in 2 days – Click here to enroll.

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On 11th September, IAS 2017 aspirants will start their journey of mastering the core concepts and understanding the value of tikdams in their test attempts, right from Day 1.

But some of the first timers wrote back to us that they were unclear as to what these tikdams were all about?

• Is it just about a guessing technique? If yes, then isn’t it better that I rather complete the course than depend upon guess work?
• Is this easy for a newbie to understand or only an experienced test taker can develop the hunch for correct options?
• Should I join the TS now or wait for my coaching to help me finish the coursework before? I don’t want to feel less confident about my testing scores etc etc.

Let’s solve your concerns and assure you that joining the TS right now is the most sensible thing you can do for your test prep.

Read this question from the IAS Prelims 2016. If you are a beginner to IAS Prep, what would be your takeaways from this question?

#1. With reference to ‘Astrosat’, the astronomical observatory launched by India, which of the following statements is/are correct? (IAS Pre 2016)

1. Other than USA and Russia, India is the only country to have launched a similar observatory into space.
2. Astrosat is a 2000 kg satellite placed in an orbit at 1650 km above the surface of the Earth via PSLV.

The question asked you to select the correct statement(s) of these two.

Look at this question and think like a beginner. If you just started your IAS Preparation, its likely that you have no idea about Astrosat or even if you do, you might not know the intricate details which this question put forth. Right? Does that mean that as a beginner you will have to mug up on all the factoids of current affairs? Is that even humanly possible to do! Is this what UPSC wants you to become? A ratta machine?

Think again!

As a beginner, when you read about the space missions and related activities in news, you will invariably find mentions of China, EU along with USA, Russia in the strategic missions in space. Now even if you do not know about Astrosat in particular, your tikdami mind should raise a red flag – Is it possible that EU, China etc would not have attempted something that India just did?

During your preparation, you will come across the launchers – PSLV, GSLV etc and you would know about their load taking capacities and learn that PSLV has an upper limit at ~1680 kgs. Now this piece of knowledge becomes wisdom for a sincere student and that becomes a piece of tikdam when he applies it on the second statement! There is no way in hell that 2000 kg of mass can be transported by a PSLV. That’s wrong!

And voilla, you get your answer!

You can easily cross both the statement and attempt the question without the knowledge of Astrosat in particular. That’s what tikdam is. Is this guesswork? NO.

This is the point when knowledge becomes wisdom and a sincere aspirant takes a leap over everyone else!

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Now, let’s take another simple question –

#2. Which one of the following is the best description of ‘INS Astradharini’, that was in the news recently?

(a) Amphibious warfare ship

(b) Nuclear-powered submarine

(c) Torpedo launch and recovery vessel

(d) Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

Look at this question like a newbie. You did not by-heart the list of INS in news that year (who would!) and yet you need to apply tikdam into this question. What then?

Astra dharani = Astra ko dharan karne wali

That’s it – the smart hack of breaking that hindi word and matching astra with torpedo will give you the correct option – that is (c)!

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Let’s give you another question from the Civilsdaily Flagship Test Series. This is an early bird sneak peek for those who want to understand tikdams better!

#3. Recently, India has joined ‘Hague Code of Conduct’, consider following statements:

1. It was established in 2002 to prevent the spread of ballistic missiles that can deliver weapons of mass destruction
2. It is the only normative instrument to verify the spread of ballistic missiles
3. It is a voluntary legally binding multilateral body

Which of the statements given above is/are Correct?

a)1 only

b)2 and 3 only

c)1 and 2 only

d)1,2 and 3

What do you need to do to solve such CA questions?

• Stay up to date with daily news – YES. In fact, we recommend that you read from our FREE android app daily to get the top 10-15 news items relevant for UPSC – Click here to download.
• Knowing the basic terms of Polity – voluntary, legally binding agreements etc etc – YES. You gain this from reading your NCERTs properly
• And Tikdams! The art of reading the finer details of a question

Red Flags in the option choices – Option 2 & 3 are counter intuitive to each other. If one is the other can’t be. Also, a voluntary body cannot be legally binding! There goes the option 3 down the drain.

That’s it! Knowledge leads to wisdom leads to Tikdam!

Our message to you is very simple.

As test takers and test makers, we know one thing for certain –

You need to work hard on your basics. We will be putting in efforts in our explanation sheets when we pick up titbits and tikdams for you BUT you need to be more forthcoming in your attempts. You need to think beyond the question and discuss other finer aspects of the answer choices.

Tikdam is the state of mind when knowledge becomes wisdom.

 

So, don’t think that tikdams and smart hacks are for those who haven’t prepared well. NO. They are for those who want to go to the zen level of problem solving! Prelims will be a cakewalk if you attempt the 3200 questions of the Flagship Test Series. You are bound to clear it 100% if you stay true to the time table and think like a PRO.

So, start from the Day 1. Do your NCERTs well and attempt the Indian Polity Test on 11th September.

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Background: Chekuri Kirthi, a student of Metallurgy Engineering batch in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, emerged as the topper in the two Telugu states in the Civil Services exam. She picked up the idea of being an IAS officer in her third year at IIT inspired by a talk of serving officer. She says, “couldn’t imagine myself working in the four walls of a company… the vast scope of service civil services throw up actually drew me towards it.”

Her journey: She cleared UPSC with 14th rank in her third attempt (CSE-2015). Her ranks in previous attempts were 440 in CSE-2013 and 512 in CSE-2014. She prepared for the exam this time while undergoing the training in academy.

Suggestion for Prelims: We tend to overestimate our potential and neglect prelims thinking Prelims marks wouldn’t count for the exam. Neglecting prelims can prove to be a very costly mistake. Many toppers in the list cleared prelims with a margin of 1-3 marks. One can understand that 1-2 questions in Prelims can make or break your dreams.

In 2013, she cleared the Prelims by just 4 marks. She admits that her reason for low performance in Prelims 2013 was minimal practice in Quant and playing safe in Paper-1. She knew 45 questions comfortably in paper-1 and just guessed 10 more there by attempting just 55 questions. She realized it was a very dangerous strategy. In prelims, one should mark the questions in which one is 100% percent sure in the first round. In the second round, one should also try to attempt those questions in which one can eliminate two options. With this strategy, she comfortably cleared prelims in CSE 2014.

Mains strategy: In her first two attempts, her mains marks were marginally above the cut-off (10 marks). She admits that she cleared both the attempts only because of her interview. She made a few changes in her Mains answer writing approach which helped her enormously.

• Diagrams: She drew a lot of diagrams. She drew India and World Maps for Geography or International Relations.
• Side headings
• Flow Charts
• Breadth instead of Depth: Cover as many dimensions as possible in an answer rather than covering the issue in depth with quality analysis. UPSC prefers the no. of dimensions in an answer.
• Introduction: Take the key words of the question and explain them. That becomes the introduction.

Internalize the points you study in your preparation- what are the side-headings you can give, how to draw flow chart for the question, maximizing the dimensions etc.

Attempt as many questions as you can, unless you are absolutely clueless and can’t make an intelligent guess about what’s asked. Go through the question paper in first 2-3 minutes and select the questions you are good at(around 10) and attempt them first. Only then go for the other questions on which you’ll have little idea where you have to guess.

[Click 2 Download] “The Art of Tikdams” is now available for all IAS Prelims 2017 aspirants

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Background: Fouzia Tarannum started her preparation for UPSC in December 2010. She quit her job as a Business Analyst with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. In CSE 2011, she cleared with AIR of 307, thereby joining the IRS (IT). The attempt in 2012 didn’t see any improvement in her rank/service.

Her preparation journey: Once posted she started feeling the difference in service – IAS and IRS. She felt that she should try one last time for her dream service and give one last attempt. A few weeks before 2014 prelims she jumped into preparation mode.

What made her successful this time? She reread the standard books, along with the sources available online. She feels that a big part of the improvement in rank to AIR 31 this year was due to her growth as a person, becoming more mature, having seen more of this world and a creeping sense of practicality and realism in approach, compared to an over-idealistic one earlier.

Her advice:  She advises that UPSC is actually looking for more rounded personalities with problem solving approach and an analytical mind. The UPSC journey should be looked at in this light, and not merely reading of books.

How difficult it was to prepare with her job? She felt a deep sense of duty and responsibility towards her work that she doesn’t compromise on her present work while giving this attempt. She had to be more than justifying the salary that she was taking home.

Though it was tiring at times, but she made sure that at office, she would concentrate on work, and at home on preparation efforts.

How did she balance both? The balance came from management of time. There will never be enough time; rather we have to make time for everything. She took no leave before prelims, took 30 days leave before mains and 5 days leave for interview.

How did she plan her studies? She studied for atleast 2 hours a day, on working days – depending on her work day either early morning or late night – August to December 2014. She also managed to take a few Fridays off after the prelims results, so as to get 3 days of continuous studies.

She finished weekly newspapers that she piled up and studied for about 4 hours a day, on weekends and holidays.

How did she manage her different subjects? She focused on revising her strong areas (economy, geography, etc.) and re-prepared her weak areas (history, culture, sociology, etc.) along with preparing for the newly introduced topics.

She focused on current events and ensured that she remained updated with GS.

Optional Subjects: she chose Sociology as optional because it takes lesser time to prepare in comparison and enjoyed reading this subject, though she had never studied this subject academically.

Her tips for Ethics- GS Paper 4: She just read a few solved papers and looked up definitions on all the terms used in the syllabus and made short notes. She suggests that one must give true answers to most situational questions/case studies.

Did she practice writing answers? She says she couldn’t practise writing due to lack of time and also feels that if she had practised, she could have scored better.

Tips to write answers: She gave many examples in her answers, and tried to keep them interesting to whoever was to read them.

Time Management: There is a dire need for short, productive periods of reading through the day. For instance, she read the news feeds after returning from lunch at office, watched news/saved videos while travelling to and from office, etc. Such reading of 15 minutes in short bursts 4-5 times a day really adds up and contributes immensely to our efforts.

Whenever she felt low in her studies: She use to take up a subject that she liked and enjoyed when she would feel depressed. This really helps make our efforts more productive. She suggests one should be judicious in the time one allots to various “sub-subjects”.

Writing style: She feels short, to the point, bullet points, covering as many dimensions and aspects as possible is the best way to write answers. She didn’t focus much on word limits, for some answers she looked for more space and for some she just jotted down half a page. She suggests interlinking of topics and use of diagrams/charts. She also underlined important points while writing.

Her suggestion: A lot of resources are available online, one must have a look and settle for what works best and not waste time on internet unnecessarily.

Do not lose focus and never lose faith. Stay consistent in your efforts. Believe in yourself! Don’t forget to keep learning and to keep improving!

Though a certain amount of luck is required, hard work does pay!

She says- “I have not studied in big “Ivy League” institutions, nor do I have any civil servants in my family. I come from a very simple, ordinary, loving household, where education has never been very important”.

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[Click 2 Download] “The Art of Tikdams” is now available for all IAS Prelims 2017 aspirants

source

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It’s August end. For some of us, the prelims blitzkrieg just ended, for some, the mains gamble started, and the fuchhas, the newbies, June 2017 has already started giving them jitters. But all this, when we are still in the cocoon stage of our struggle, the stage where all we have to do is scratch the grey matter. Some of us get through the struggle part easily, many of us do not. Such is the story, a walk through struggles, of 2006 AIR 48, Govind Jaiswal. Not everyone makes headlines, he did. Lets get to know this man, this inspiration and pray altogether that, not some but many of us make it to the holy list.

Born and brought up in Varanasi. Son of a Rickshaw vendor, three sisters, the bringing up was not smooth. Quoting him in verbatim,” I used to plug in cotton buds inside my ears, for the street outside our home was so noisy, the room we lived in so small, that this wasn’t something I could choose not to.”

The Great Indian system, which expected him to continue with rickshaws and not dream beyond that, became his muse, his inspiration. For now he knew, the only thing which could lift him off the ground was education, and he grasped the fact so hard that there was no turning back. In one of his interactions, he got to know the one thing, by becoming which one could gain respect, of peers, of society, for himself and his parents.

And the golden words were, An IAS officer. This stuck to his mind like, metal to magnet, detractors tried pulling him back, society said, “Oh! you aren’t destined for this, why the pains?” He soon answered the benign concern nevertheless. For his home is now, “IAS ka ghar”.

He got through his college education from BHU, economic constraints here too, but the fire never died, he never stopped dreaming. Then on a leap of faith, he came to Delhi, the Mecca of aspirants.

The going wasn’t easy. His father had to sell all his land to sum up a meagre Rs.30,000/- for him. Govind too kept on with sustenance by giving tuitions while in Delhi. The struggle was real. Two times a meal became luxury, having had enjoyed dinner with the leftovers of lunch. And with all these the constant thought of his father, the hopes, the heavy feeling.

He chose Philosophy and History as his optionals, yes the time when there used to be two, lucky you. His hindi background was an area of concern for him, like it is for many amongst us, as if English is the sole parameter of achievement. But all he could do was work on it, and he excelled at working.

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. Govind exemplified the phrase and made it through the mains. Dholpur house, the holy list, were so near, yet so far. The interview went well, like it went for hundreds like him. Quoting his sister, “ Had he not made it to the list, someone of us could have died. Things were this tensed.” And he did make it to the list.

But we all know, Govind isn’t the only one. Many of us have had seen things, much more miserable, through this hallowed journey. You feel down by the constant feeling, the thought of, “what if I don’t get through”, well, don’t let that thought die. Wear it on your arm, like a badge, let no one, not even you, your thoughts take over your aspirations. Nothing can be stronger than your will, if you must. You are, what your struggles have moulded you into. The product of your hardships.

Do not get too much into strategies, do not plan to plan everything. Do not feel down if you fail to cover the target you set for the day. Believe in yourself. You will get through, you have to get through. The nation needs officers like Govind, like you.

And when you’ll wave us from the other side, the party wouldn’t have ended, rather lifelong celebrations would have just begun. A new life in the making. A life of giving, of fulfilling the needs, of materializing the vision a young boy saw in the bylanes of Varanasi.

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Contributed by Shreesh Kala.

• – Civilsdaily’s Flagship Test Series – Click to Register
• – First test on 11th September is of Basic Polity which covers all NCERTs (refer the detailed time table)
  

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Last year, for the IAS Prelims 2016, we had come up with 10 Short Sectional Tests and 4 FLTS to give our users a well rounded last minute preparation.

Since Civilsdaily’s Newscards and articles have always been bullish on current affairs, this years’ current affairs heavy paper was a cakewalk for most of our students.

But that should not be the only reason why you should join us for IAS 2017 Prep. In fact, we shun all the comparisons on the lines of 70% were from our TS and such like. Click here to read why?

What benefitted our students the most were our well defined conceptual questions and our heavy focus on making them solve those questions with smart hack techniques (Tikdams). 

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This year, we have set up a dedicated academic team to focus on the nitty gritties of the UPSC Exam Space

• – You would have seen the heavy initiatives – Target Mains – GS Questions with DNA Model Answers which is already running on the portal every day
• – The 3 tier test series has been made so that Beginners to IAS Prep get a separate treatment which helps them evolve their test taking skills to the Advanced level guys after the first 6 tests
• – All 32 tests are 100 mark papers which focus on one particular section only

Our team consists of members who’ve qualified prelims many times with ease and are well-versed with the changing patterns of UPSC. They have also been instrumental in creating test series for top notch institutes and are aware of the deficiencies in them. We have put together a program that is fine and balanced and increases your chances to get through. 

#1. Focus on concepts 

Be assured that our questions will cover ALL core concepts that are an absolute must. Do not neglect your static course at the cost of current affairs preparation. We are going to make sure you stay on top of everything.

#2. Intelligent questions over Difficult ones

Some coaching institutes/ Test Series take immense pride in framing questions that test very advanced and alien concepts which are hard to find in reference book.

Such questions are irrelevant and have a negative impact on a student’s preparation, specially the one’s who are just starting out. A relatively low score makes a student go hunting for difficult questions and ends up wasting time he would’ve spent perfecting his base concepts. 

Here’s an example of such question – 

Consider the following statements : 

1. Ventricular systole of heart increases the ventricular pressure causing the closure of semilunar valves, producing the second heart sound called dub.

2. Ventricular diastole of heart decreases the ventricular pressure causing the closure of the right and left atrio-ventricular valve providing first heart sound called lubb.

which of the statements given above is/are carroect?

a) 1 only

b) 2 only

c) both 1 and 2

d) neither 1 nor 2.

Good luck wracking your head against a wall if you think such questions are going to pave way for success!

We believe that you should be thorough with the base & reference books + Newspapers and should be able to attempt difficult questions from here.

The Intelligent questions should be such that they make you think of tikdams and smart hacks to solve for. That’s the sure shot way of confidence building. You will come out of our FLTs and write in comments about how you hacked through some of our questions – and feel empowered because the options were framed in a way to help you do that!

#3. Not engaging in vague nitpicking 

Amateur test series have all sorts of questions made from insignificant lines of reference books/ ncerts. Moreover they are framed in such a manner that its difficult to infer what they actually mean if one has not read those exact sentences.

Consider one such vague question –

The juvenile justice care & protection bill 2014 has been passed by both the houses of the parliament, seek to bring the following changes 

1. To lower culpability as an adult from 18 to 16 years

2. To amend the juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act 2000 suitably

3. To implement the recommendations of JS Verma Committee on criminal law reforms. 

Now, many would find stmt 2 to be correct. But the catch here is the JJ C&P Act is not an amendment but a replacement of the JJ C& P Act 2000. And that is what this question maker wanted to test you on.

This is a badly structured question. This comes neither in the ambit of smart testing nor in the ambit of tikdams. We don’t think UPSC sets illogical traps like these and neither do we plan to do so. 

Make sure that every question counts

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We are spending a lot of time framing questions so that you understand the requirement and attempt accordingly.

We have separated static tests (basic and advanced) from current affairs tests so you know your weak points individually and can go back and hone them. No point giving ~20 CA questions with 80 Static questions. It is all about FOCUS!

Our explanations would have sufficient amounts of tikdams to help you develop that knack of problem solving which is going to help you prepare for any kind of exam pattern.

In case, you wish to refer to our mocks from last year – feel free to subscribe to the Open Mocks Program on our prelims.civilsdaily.com portal to feel the difference.

Join in today.

Link to the Flagship Course – Click here to Join

If you have any questions, feel free to drop in a line below.